In general, a pneumatic tire has a pair of bead wires embedded in the bead portions thereof and each consisting of a number of turns of wires in the form of a ring shape which is usually kept by a strip helically wrapped around the bead wire. Conventionally, a limited length of strip by a winding winding reel is wound before being wrapped around the bead wire. Therefore, an empty winding reel is required to be changed for a full winding reel when the limited length of the strip has been unwound from the winding reel before the strip is completely wrapped around the full length of the bead wire. For changing operation from the empty winding reel to the full winding reel it is required to stop operation of the wrapping apparatus. After operation of the wrapping apparatus is stopped, the trailing end portion unwound from the winding reel is required to be joined to the leading end portion of the full winding reel and then to start the operation of the wrapping apparatus. Difficulties are however encountered in that tedious and laborious operation is needed to change the empty winding reel for the full winding reel and to join the trailing and leading end portions of the strips, thereby resulting in low operational efficiency.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a strip supplying apparatus which eliminates tedious and laborious operations to join the trailing and leading end portions of the strips unwound from the winding reels.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a strip supplying apparatus which enhances operational efficiency in a joining operation of the trailing and leading end portions of the strips unwound from the winding reels.